Festival Maribor 2015 is a tribute to female creativity. Émilie Suite by Kaija Saariaho takes us into the subtle feminine world on the occasion of the festival opening. The Finnish composer – one of the world's most prominent contemporary composers – is renowned for her subtle revealing of complex (female) inner universes. The suite, based on the opera by the same name, paints a tragic image of a woman's soul torn between the role of a mother and that of a scientist wanting to be remembered for her work.

The recording of this composition under the direction of the opening concert conductor Marko Letonja and the soprano Karen Vouch’r received rave reviews. The Maribor Festival Orchestra will initially be introduced with music by Bartók, which Stanley Kubrick borrowed for his film The Shining and the mighty finale will – typically – be performed by men: the artistic director of the Maribor Festival Richard Tognetti on the solo violin with the Concerto of the "most masculine" of all male composers presented under the baton of Marko Letonja.